Page 61 of Hard Ruck

Frost

“He didwhat?”Storm’s face was a fascinating shade of pissed off. If he was a cartoon character, he’d have steam coming out of his ears.

“Nothing yet,” Chelsea said. “He freaked out. It happens.” She sat cross-legged on the couch, both hands curled around a cup of coffee.

“It’s the ‘yet’ I’m worried about,” Storm said. “You got the impression he was going to insist the GM not hire you? What kind of bullshit is that?” His gaze flicked over to me. It wasn’t that long ago we considered asking for the same thing. That Chelsea not work for the team. At the time, that was to keep her away from guys like Atlas. It might not have been such a bad idea after all.

“He was just reacting.” She looked down into her coffee.

“I’ll react back at him,” Storm snapped. “With my fist.”

“I’d help if that would change anything,” Dallas said. “It won’t. It’ll make things worse.”

“It’ll make me feel better,” Storm said. He stomped away towards the window and stood looking out, silent for a while.

I moved over to sit beside Chelsea. “You okay?”

She shrugged. “I got a front row ticket to Ice Blue Roses. I should be grateful for that.”

“Doesn’t sound worth it to me,” I said. “If you didn’t get to enjoy it because of him.”

“I shouldn’t have said anything.” She sighed, making her coffee ripple.

“Of course you should,” I said. “It’s part of your life. If he cared about you, he’d understand that.”

“It’s not that simple,” she said. “Do you ever wonder what would happen to you if the team found out what I did and connected you to me? What it would do to your career? All of your careers. Maybe he was right to walk away. It might be better for everyone if you walked away from me too.”

“I don’t care what they say about me,” I said. “I’m not leaving you. You’re stuck with me, whether you like it or not.”

“Me too,” Dallas said. “If the team doesn’t like it, they can fuck off.”

“You say that now, but if it happened, it wouldn’t be that simple,” she said. “You love rugby. You have years left to play.”

“Exactly,” I said. “Only years. We have decades left to be with you. Seems like a no-brainer to me.” She was right in one regard. I wanted to retire from playing when I was ready, not under a cloud of scandal.

“If I don’t work for the team, no one has any reason to go digging into my past,” she said slowly. “I could work at the hospital, or one of the GP clinics in town.”

Storm turned around and leaned his back against the wall. “That would be like spending years trying to get signed by a team, then working in the supermarket stacking shelves instead.”

“I used to stack shelves in the supermarket,” I pointed out.

“Yeah, but you didn’t choose it instead of playing rugby.” Storm cocked his head at me, his anger having simmered down somewhat.

“No,” I agreed. “Some days, when Coach has us training hard, I wondered if I made the right life choice.” I smiled, hoping to get one out of Chelsea. I hated to see her so bummed. Especially over Atlas. Of all the guys, he was the one I would have guessed would understand why she used to dance.

“I’m sure you did,” she said. “Which is why I need to make the right choice now. I’ll contact the GM in the morning and withdraw my application.” Tears glistened on her lashes.

“You will not,” Storm said. “You belong with the team.”

“I agree with him,” Dallas said. “We want you there, working at the stadium. Travelling with us.”

“Close by when Dallas needs to get off,” I teased.

He looked at me evenly and nodded. “That too.”

I shook my head at him, indulgently, then turned back to Chelsea. “I want you there too. We can deal with whatever happens. For all we know, Atlas will feel different in the morning. Or in a few days. If you walk away from the job now, it might be for nothing.”

“It might be, and it might prevent a shit storm,” she said. “I don’t want any of you caught in the middle of that.”

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